With all the traffic, and poorly engineered bottlenecks on the highway, why does the State not allow all public roads, including the HOV lane to be used by all tax paying citizens? I frequently see gridlock on the freeway but the HOV lane is completely open? I understand the State is trying to encourage carpooling and EV with the "incentive" to exclusively drive on a public road funded by all tax payers, however social engineering using tax payer's money on a public roadway seems unfair to the majority of citizens who cannot carpool or drive an EV but still pay the same road tax. Also, considering the majority of electricity on Oahu is generated using Diesel or trash, the efficiency of an electric vehicle is actually much less than a regular car. If the State wants to cut emissions, they can start with other incentives that don't unfairly impact taxpayers, i.e. require employers to allow a staggered 4 day work week, or require a certain percent of employees to work form home. Now with COVID, the HOV lane rules should be lifted completely since people are also now required to social distance. The HOV lane barely improves congestion on the roadway so why not reevaluate your approach? Doing more of the same, expecting different results is insanity. Let the people drive on the road they payed for and improve the quality of life for the majority of commuters who pay for the road. The traffic is caused by low speed limits on the on and off ramps and poor design of merging intersections. DOT should pin point and re-engineer the bottlenecks that are actually slowing things down and start an education program to teach drivers how to reach highway speeds before merging, instructing merging vehicles to yield, and proving how use of a turn signal at least three seconds before a lane change prevents accident and creating more traffic. I would advise against using the Japanese model for transportation and urban design and look towards Germany and countries that do not have crippling congestion. Its a root cause analysis.